In a country where we have 26,000+ NGOs, it is always
expected that innovative solutions to alleviating poverty will come from within
the country first rather than only from foreign aid, foreign know-how and foreign
goodwill. If necessity is the mother of all inventions, then it has really
produced inventions such as micro-credit and luminaries like Dr. Yunus and Sir
Abed. While it is appreciated what esteemed individuals like these have
contributed to the world and to the fight against poverty, let us also look
around and see what a relatively younger generation, with less grey hair than
Yunus-Abed, is doing in relation to fundraising, poverty alleviation and
technology. Jolkona Foundation is such an organisation which I have been
following for a while now.
Assuming you have checked out what they are all about, let
me delve straight into my thoughts about their venture.
The Bangla link
With due respect to the globalised team they have, we can
take pride in the fact that even the very naming of the organisation implies (jolkona,
meaning water drops in Bangla) that even micro-donations can have positive
impact on people’s lives. So firstly I liked the name that it is in authentic
Bangla. Then from the team profile you can realise that it is made of
innovative, energetic American citizens, a few of whom may have links to
Bangladesh through family and got inspired to get involved in alleviating poverty
with the help of technology. So I liked the fact that their source of
inspiration was pretty clear too.
The Kiva link
What I am still trying to figure out is how different they
are in terms of what they do from the likes of Kiva, which has set some sort of
precedence in this field of one-to-one donations and impact tracking via
technology. Honestly I didn’t have the time to compare and contrast these two,
may be any team member from Jolkona will be able to elaborate why someone or
who should choose them over Kiva.
Bringing the innovation home
May be the environment in the US
is more conducive to help nourish such noble ideas, I wonder how Jolkona could
replicate the same with the domestic fundraising scenario inside Bangladesh. Most
of 26,000 NGOs are one way or the other, dependent on foreign aid, from
governments, foundations or high value individuals. But I still believe that in
a country of 160 million, there is enough depth in the combined pocket of the
population to donate in tiny amounts for micro causes within Bangladesh. Key
reason why I never donate to the majority of these 26,000 is because I don’t
trust them and I am convinced that they want to get richer through the business
of poverty. But if I ever come across any appealing initiative which ensures full
transparency, appeals to the youth, is trendy and shows impact clearly, I will
not think twice to donate tiny amounts via SMS on a monthly basis.
So the point is I think the domestic fundraising scenario in
Bangladesh
badly needs some make over and I think initiatives like Jolkona could explore
opportunities to help improve this situation. Making young school kids wear
yellow t-shirts and selling roses in busy traffic junctions in Dhaka is
certainly a fundraising effort worth appreciating, but only on the Children’s
Day may be. How do we make it sustainable day after day? With the exponential growth
of mobile phones in Bangladesh
and local remittance services like bKash on the rise, I get a feeling that Jolkona
could explore using this infrastructure to make it easier for the young
Bangladeshis to help their fellow citizens. One word of caution though – any good
thing can get spoilt fast in Bangladesh, so you might have to be careful for other 26,000
copy cats who can set up hotlines for SMS donations overnight and make the scenario
really messy and untrustworthy again.
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